Gordon Cookson
My passion for woodturning started at school when I was 14. My dad organised a family whip-round for a joint Christmas and 16th birthday present and bought me a lathe, which I stll use.
I have thoroughly enjoyed being a member of the Association of Woodturners of Great Britain and the Middlesex Woodturners Association for nearly 20 years and the Cheam Woodturners Association for 7 years. Their demonstrators and international ones at other seminars have inspired and taught me a vast amount. Their newsletters, the Woodworker and British Woodworking magazines have included my articles.
I run the library of books, videos and DVDs, which I founded in 2003 in memory of my Dad, at the Middlesex meetings on the second Thursday of each month at 7.30 pm at the Gaelic Athletics Association Clubhouse opposite the A40 Polish War Memorial. (www.middxturners.com)
I particularly enjoy the challenge of making one-off items from unusually shaped wood, especially those with wild grain pattterns. The wood is mainly from trees which either fall down through wind or disease and those which have to be taken down because they have grown too big for their surroundings.
Like all turners I have given turned pieces to friends and organisations who have kindly let me have wood. These inlcude the Friends of St.Mary's Church, Perivale out of the famous Ash tree which has blown down in their grounds and for Members of Ealing Quaker Meeting House, out of their old pitch pine benches, which have been replaced by chairs.
I have given talks to local art societies and have recently been the subject of two films by trainee documentary directors for the BBC Academy. I have also been an observer at the North London Group's excellent AWGB Demonstrator Training Day and I hope to give small demonstrations at my turning clubs in the future.
I show my work at exhibitions organised by the Middlesex Club, the Ealing Art Group, Chandos Art & Crafts, at local craft fairs, Gallery Tavid in Ealing in Ealing and by appointment at my home.
Gordon Cookson April 2010
15 Craven Ave.,
Ealing
London W5 2SY
Tel: 0208 576 7548